Poll: Vast majority of Americans still self-identify as Christians

posted at 6:00 pm on December 24, 2011 by Tina Korbe

In advance of Christmas, Gallup released the results of a year’s worth of interviews of Americans about their attitudes toward religion. The results aren’t necessarily surprising, but they do make you wonder: How exactly is it that the phrase “Merry Christmas” has been branded offensive? From the poll summary:

The United States remains a predominantly Christian nation, with 78% of all adults identifying with a Christian faith, and more than 9 in 10 of those who have a religious identity identifying as Christians. [M]ore than 9 in 10 Americans say they believe in God, and … 8 in 10 say religion is a very or fairly important part of their lives.

Then again, perhaps the politicization of Christmas — the suspicion of public displays of religiosity, the secularization of sacred expressions — comes from the majority’s attempt to accommodate the vocal minority. And while a majority of Americans still identify as Christians, the percentage of Americans who say they have no formal religious identity is still on the rise. A total of 15 percent say they don’t identify with any religion at all, what Gallup calls “a continuation of a dramatic change from 50 and 60 years ago, when almost all Americans identified with a particular religion.”

That trend might be discouraging — but the overarching message of this poll is not. Most folks still see this season — and, indeed, their lives — as about something more than even politics or family or fancy gift-giving. My hope and prayer for all of you is that this might be a time to reconnect with that something more — a chance to remember that we exist in relationship not only with each other, but also with our Creator — and, for Christians, our Savior.

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Resident Orthodox Jewish guy checking in. No, I don’t get offended by there being Christmas displays everywhere, so long as they don’t end up on my property or on my synagogue’s property. If someone wishes me a Merry Christmas, I shrug it off and say thank you back.

By the way, when non-Jewish people wish Jewish people a Happy Hannukah, it’s appreciated but it’s offensive in that if-you-overthink-it kinda way. Hannukah is a holiday celebrating a miracle of 1 day’s oil lasting for 8 days only on its surface; Hannukah is the celebration of the Jews resisting Hellenic cultural assimilation by the ruling Greeks. In other words, its not so much the holiday when we say “we’re proud to be Jews” (because, we’re always proud that we’re Jewish) but rather the holiday when we say “we’re proud we’re not non-Jews”. So a non-Jew wishing a Jew Happy Hannukah is like saying, “Hey, you’re assimilated into American society, but enjoy your anti=assimilation holiday anyways.”

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” – Isaiah 9:6 (King James Version, Cambridge Edition)

I like the hearts and community of Christianity-and the rationality and logic of Judaism. *sigh*

annoyinglittletwerp on December 24, 2011 at 10:37 PM

I hear ya. Jewish communities are supposed to have that sort of heart and community. My grandmother recently passed away, and my mother sat shiva (for the uninitiated – a period of a week after the funeral when the mourner sits at home while the community comes and visits to comfort the mourner and take care of worldly needs like food shopping). Dozens of people from the Jewish community came, sat with her, and provided food and comfort.

I think you find the community and heart at the more observant levels of Judaism, where people become more involved. It’s a bit of a culture shock for most people though – stuff that most Americans would misinterpret as misogynist, heavy emphasis on ritual, an entire subculture affecting everything from language to law. Definitely not for everyone.

My husband is a Calvinist-so orthodoxy is out. I’m also not fond of religious legalism / Lubbock has two(I hope small) mosques but only one synagogue. Very reform and a female ‘rabbi’. No way. Texas Tech has a muslim students association but no Hillel and no Chabad. There’s churches everywhere. I was raised right-of-center. I can count the number of right-of-center reformed Jews I know one one hand…and that’s if you include me.

I checked Chabad’s website – honestly, I’m surprised that there isn’t a Chabad within 100 miles of Lubbock. Chabad is everywhere, including Siberia and Vietnam (no joke). Chabadniks are weird to be sure (I have one for a landlord), but two things are for certain – they don’t push the religious legalist side on their congregants, and they don’t judge (especially the collegiate Chabads).

This poll makes me think more than ever that we are doomed as a nation.

If this many people claim to be Christian and yet we as a nation elect a President such as the one we have now and may even give him a second term, it means that people’s faith has little if any influence on how they vote. Either that or the system is so rigged and corrupted that we as a nation are no longer capable of selecting a President that will be the best President for the country. Presidents will be elected because they will promise to perpetuate the system. A second term for Obama is proof positive of this.

If Obama is re-elected America as we once knew it is done. We’re already to the point now where it will take decades to undo what’s been done the last 3 years. Another term? Stick a fork in America, we’re done.

It may mean they have little understanding of who a Christian is, what a Christian believes and how a Christian is to live. Pray for those who name the name of Christ—that if they call Him Lord, then they will obey Him. The Bible needs to be faithfully taught and heard.

“Without absolutes revealed from without by God Himself, we are left rudderless in a sea of conflicting ideas about manners, justice, and right and wrong, issuing from a multitude of self-opinionated thinkers. We could never know who God is, how He is to be worshiped, or wherein true happiness lies…”
~John Owen

Far too many who claim to be Christians live by their own opinion rather than seeking out the Scriptures to see what God has said.

Pray for pastors and Christian leaders to be servants who will faithfully teach and lead. There are too many who are asleep or who are busy building up their own club rather than the church.

That’s where my Jewish logic causes me problems. The ‘Bible’ was inspired by God-but written by human hands. Humans aren’t perfect. I consider much of the Bible to be God-inspired allegory. For example-God created the universe eons ago. It’s a number with many, many zeros. As I see it-my husband the Calvinist agrees btw-the story of Adam and Eve is an allegory. Ditto with a lot of the stories in the Jewish(won’t call it old testament) Bible.
A friend once told me that I couldn’t rationalize/think my way into Christianity. She’s right-because if I starting thinking about it…and I can’t believe it. You add in the view that the non-saved got to hell….
My Jewish father didn’t go to hell . My Jewish mother won’t go to hell. NONE of my Jewish relatives will/did go to hell-because Jews aren’t supposed to believe in Jesus-they’re supposed to be good JEWS.
My mother-in-law informed me that the Holocaust was God’s wrath on the Jews for not accepting Jesus and that all the Jews that died-including a million children-are on fire now. I told her that her view was bloodthirsty and would fit in well with islam. We don’t discuss religion anymore
Is all this confusion causing me some tumult?
Yes.

My mother-in-law informed me that the Holocaust was God’s wrath on the Jews for not accepting Jesus and that all the Jews that died-including a million children-are on fire now. I told her that her view was bloodthirsty and would fit in well with islam. We don’t discuss religion anymore
Is all this confusion causing me some tumult?
Yes.

annoyinglittletwerp on December 25, 2011 at 12:25 AM

There are Jews who spit on goyem too…. and you know what Hannaukah is all about. Sectarianism is one of the most evil temptations and even atheists get the fever sometimes. Just have fun. You were absolutely right to push back had against that holocaust BS. I can;t really see what you are confused about.

Is it really so difficult to believe that the universe is only a mere 5772 years old? If God is the Creator of the universe – why couldn’t He create the universe already looking old? Why couldn’t God create the stars already in motion, the continents separated, the bones of dinosaurs already buried? If God is really the Creator, then he didn’t just create the physical world around us, but also time itself. God exists outside time, and can toy with it at will. It’s not an argument that would satisfy an objective atheist, but then again, atheism is no more nor less a belief system than any of the Abrahamic religions.

And as for trying to understand why the Holocaust happened, it’s really not our place to try and understand why God does what He does. God has a master plan for us all – even Christians believe that. If someone really needs an explanation, then they should look no farther than the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and the role of the international community in its creation on a political scale. If God really wanted to punish the Jews in the Holocaust by not accepting Christ, then why did He reward the Jews by granting us a land in which evangelism is illegal and where Jewish religious observance has only been increasing, year after year?

I throw out those kinds of antisemitic arguments with the “Jews have horns” theories that refuse to die (and are testament to how utterly corrupt Christian translations of the Bible tend to be).

Speaking of mistranslations and Hell… Christianity mistranslated the sections relating to Hell as well. Hell is not a place guarded by the Devil filled with fire and brimstone to torment the wicked for all eternity. God is not a vengeful deity. Life exists essentially as an experiment to see whether or not Man will, through free will, decide to turn towards holiness or away from it. There are three types of beings in this world – animals, who are wholly physical and have no spirit; Man, who has both a physical element and a spiritual element; and angels, who are wholly spiritual and thus have no physical element. When we turn towards God – do good deeds and become holier people – God finds us in favor, and when we turn towards wickedness, God becomes displeased.

Hell is a place where we discover why God was displeased with the sins we committed in our lives. In Hell, we review all the sins we committed during our lives from our new perspective of someone who no longer has any stake in the physical world. This allows us to experience pain – not the physical pain of burning but the emotional pain that we feel for having turned away from our Heavenly Father. When we finally fully understand the gravity of the terrible things we’ve done, we can repent.

The Hebrew word for repentance is teshuva, which literally means “return”. When we repent our sins by experiencing the emotional pain that it caused God by His children leaving His embrace, we return to God. We then finally come to Heaven, to live in the presence of God in our portions of Heaven that we have built by doing good deeds in this lifetime. Righteous people build palaces of splendor far greater than any that could be imagined on this Earth, but even wicked people carve out a tiny hut for themselves with the few good things they have done.

Everyone goes to Hell (with the exception of literally a handful of people over thousands of years who according to Jewish lore committed no sins during their life), and everyone goes to Heaven. It’s not a black/white kind of thing.

When I joined the RC’s my mother was delighted-because she considers the modern Catholic church to be much more tolerant of Jewish belief.
Her gentleman friend(they met at a group for widows and widowers)is a practicing Catholic.

Raised Catholic, REALLY Catholic, I have cousins who are priests and nuns. Atheist now, atheist with a small ‘a’. Even my Catholic school parents are now non-believers. We celebrate Christmas and Easter as family holidays and Christmas ‘threw up on our house’ as my daughter would say.

I value the Judeo-Christian roots of this country, as well as the morals that come from them, I just don’t believe in a divine presence of any kind.

I was raised Scottish-Presbyterian and became as I have joked other places a “Born Again Agnostic” after several mandatory Comparative Religion classes in college. Yes, I am old and the college was in the Bible Belt South.

If I am asked about my values I will always reply Christian as that is the values I was raised in and that this Nation was founded upon. I spent 22 years of my life defending this nation why would I spit on it’s core values now?

In truth I have no problem with the practices of ANY religion save ONE!

I’m a strong Christian, probably of the type that is frequently referred to as the “religious right”.

However, I don’t really mind the “war” on Christmas. Personally I feel like the more Christianity is removed from the American culture, the more it requires actual faith and a desire to know Christ in order to call yourself a Christian. As long as it’s not replaced by evangelistic atheism or religious persecution, I don’t mind in the least that Christianity isn’t part of the public square

In fact, the only part about the secularization of Christmas that I DO mind is the commercialization of it all, and the secularization of the actual Christmas holiday. I’d much rather have a generic non-religious midwinter festival at the solstice be the gift-giving, mall-going, cheesy-magical-elf-having, Novelty-carol-singing holiday Americans celebrate and leave the celebration of the incarnation of Christ to people who really believe he is God incarnate and want to celebrate his coming to earth.

Give me 25% of the population actually living the teaching of Christ over 78% of the population proclaiming their Christianity but living as if it doesn’t matter to them much at all.

There’s not a lot of casual Christians or agnostic-leaning-Christian folks in China, because being a Christian there costs something.

“Then again, perhaps the politicization of Christmas — the suspicion of public displays of religiosity, the secularization of sacred expressions — comes from the majority’s attempt to accommodate the vocal minority.”

As law enforcement officers you have great powers. At the same time you must never forget that hand in hand with those powers go great responsibilities. You must make certain that these powers are not used for personal gain, or from any personal motive. Too often organized crime is made possible by corruption of law enforcement officials.

But, far more than that, we must always remember that you are officers of the law in a great democratic nation which owes its birth to the indignation of its citizens against the encroachment of police and governmental powers against their individual freedoms.

Now as President of the United States, I have the most honorable and the greatest job in the world–the greatest position that can come to any man on earth. I am invested with certain great powers by the Constitution of the United States in the operation of the Government of the United States. But I was put into this place by the people of the United States. I am the servant of the people. And in the first place, I am a citizen of this great country. And as a citizen it is my duty as President of the United States to be exceedingly careful in obedience to the Constitution and the laws of this great Nation.

I believe that as President it is necessary for me to be more careful in obeying the laws than for any other person to be careful. I never infringe a traffic rule. I never exercise the prerogatives which I sometimes have of going through red lights. I never exercise the prerogative of taking advantage of my position as President of the United States, because I believe, first, that I am a citizen, and that as a citizen I ought to obey the laws first and foremost.

And every one of you has that same responsibility. You yourselves, as I said, must be intellectually honest in the enforcement of the Constitution and the laws of the United States. And if you are not, you are not a good public official.

This poll makes me think more than ever that we are doomed as a nation.

If this many people claim to be Christian and yet we as a nation elect a President such as the one we have now and may even give him a second term, it means that people’s faith has little if any influence on how they vote. Either that or the system is so rigged and corrupted that we as a nation are no longer capable of selecting a President that will be the best President for the country.

Meople on December 24, 2011 at 11:38 PM

Uh, you do know that the democrat platform and Christianity have a lot in common with their doctrine: Rich bad, poor good. Rich need to give charity to the poor. Both have an authoritian preference for far-away powerful “managers” who will decide what’s good for you and give you a nice long list of rules to follow and obligations to keep. Christians really are a natural democrat consticuency. Heck, the Democrats already have the overwhelming majority of black votes, which are known to be the most Christian-believing of the usually specific races in America. The democrats also have the overwhelming majority of Jewish votes. And a big part of that is Jewish social conscious. The tenets of Judaism and Christianity share much with democrat beliefs. A unselfish non-hypocrite Christian, who really believed Christianity, would belong to the democrat party.

Give me 25% of the population actually living the teaching of Christ over 78% of the population proclaiming their Christianity but living as if it doesn’t matter to them much at all.

There’s not a lot of casual Christians or agnostic-leaning-Christian folks in China, because being a Christian there costs something.

Quantus on December 25, 2011 at 2:18 AM

THIS. As another commenter astutely pointed out, what this poll shows is that being ‘Christian’ to most ‘Christians’ in the U.S. doesn’t mean much of anything. Look at Obama being elected as proof of that. Look at how so many accept the complete redefinition of marriage as proof of that. Look at the widespread acceptance of abortion as proof of that-especially the even greater acceptance of it in ‘cases of rape or incest’ (as though God is okay with us murdering those He created just because their biological fathers are animals).

Its an interesting point you make concerning Christianity in America. Do we really want a country with an overwhelming majority that calls itself Christian but which doesn’t know what it means and/or doesn’t even try to fight for those principles and values in the public square? I’m not condemning people for failing to live sinless lives; no one is perfect. I am simply saying that if you claim to be Christian, you should never be okay with what God has made pure and holy, marriage, violated and redefined just because some people in your culture, living unrepentant sin-filled lifestyles, want you to shut up with your ‘family values’ already.

I think a second part of this issue is the fact that many of those calling themselves Christians choose to define their faith in such a muddled way that it makes almost anything acceptable. This is perfectly exemplified by such ‘Christians’ as Jeremiah Wright and Al Sharpton, but millions share similar such absurd views, views which do not actually come from the Bible, but which they think are perfectly Christian. These people think Jesus was a socialist, or that the Bible never condemns homosexuality, or that David had a gay relationship with Jonathan, or that trying to stop global warming is what Jesus wants us to do on this earth, or that the Bible wants us to totally stay out of cultural or political affairs and let others control those things, or that anyone can go to heaven if they are nice to poor people. In short, they don’t actually follow the Bible. They treat the Bible like liberals treat the Constitution. It is whatever they make it or want it to say. If Christians overwhelmingly viewed the Bible as the set Word of God, the gay marriage debate wouldn’t go anywhere in America. Was it a big debate in the 1950s? And if liberals viewed the Constitution as the set cornerstone of American governance and the rule of law, it would have never been acceptable for Obamacare to be passed or gun control regulations to be in place all over America.

If you’re not going to take the Bible seriously, as a whole, and accept the WHOLE thing, don’t pretend that you’re a Bible-believing Christian.

If Christ as a Dem/OWS member, can you explain why in the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) the master took the single coin from the slothful servant and gave it to the one who had performed the best?

If Christ was a Dem/OWS member, should he have taken all of the money and redistribute it evenly among the three of them?

The most confusing thing I always found about religion is the need to identify with it, and then otherize those who believe in something else. Isn’t the entire point of religion to just be a personal belief you hold? How do the personal, private beliefs of another affect you? Why do you feel an obligation to “spread” your own beliefs? Just sit back and relax. Enjoy your holiday, it’s supposed to be a peaceful one.

I’m pretty confused by the point of this post. Is Tina trying to brag about how many Christians this country has? Why, what does that gain you? Honestly, for hundreds of years different sects of Christianity killed each other and called each other heretics, so the fact that all together they total the vast majority of this population doesn’t mean much to me. Are you trying to get us to switch over, since it’s so popular? Thanks for the offer, but I’m fine right here.

Proverbs 6:6-11: “Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.”

Paraphrase: Stop being lazy, you little punk, or you will end up poor.

These quotes sound dead-on interchangeable with old Soviet and Chinese communist slogans. Seriously go back and read them and just imagine them plastered across some old school commie motivational propoganda mural.

These quotes sound dead-on interchangeable with old Soviet and Chinese communist slogans. Seriously go back and read them and just imagine them plastered across some old school commie motivational propoganda mural.

Daikokuco on December 25, 2011 at 1:16 PM

No, you are definitely wrong on this one. These are exhortations for personal labor for personal goals. They are statements from God about the overall requirement for personal responsibility for one’s life. The work of your hands is innately yours, just as your sins are innately yours as well.

In the Stalinist/Maoist eras, the exhortation was for group labor for group goals. Failure to meet group goals would fall upon the group, but there was no advantage for exertion above and beyond that of the other members of the group.

I have an uncle who emigrated from Communist China a few years back, and when he arrived here, he promptly sat on his duff and tried to be a scholar, practicing his calligraphy daily — which worked well until the Government money ran out. He was shocked that the Government money ran out, for as he put it “When I was in China, I herded ducks, and, whether I herded ducks well or herded ducks badly, I got paid the same by the government. So I thought it would be here.”

A couple of years later, he bought his first house after working two full time jobs.

Yes people Jews and Christians are the only good people in the world. All others are incapable of loving caring and being grateful for friends family good health and fortune. Gotta go. The baby I’m roasting for me and my Muslim friends needs turning.

I enjoy the holidays, but it has nothing to do with the pagan celebration of the winter solstice, which has been hijacked by Christianity. Faith is nothing more than superstition. Take the time to learn the history of the gospels to learn how they were cobbled together over hundreds of years by manipulative church officials to amass power, money and control. Take the time to educate yourselves on the earth sciences and search out the truth.

Only an uneducated mind governed by supernaturalism can believe the tall tales in the Bible regarding mass resurrections, God punishing people with hemorrhoids, animals speaking, people apparating, the earth only being 6,000 years old, creation myths, humans living to be 900 years old, and sinners being turned into pillars of salt. We know enough about the world today that to believe in religion requires rejection of reality and fabrication of fantasy. Moreover, religion imprisons the mind and destroys critical thinking skills. It persists, however, because myths are always more seductive than the truth and because some people just cannot wrap their minds around the concept that they are just mammals that are neither above nor superior to nature. Happy holidays everyone!

Better title: “Vast majority of Americans still check the box labelled ‘Christian’ on a poll, and promptly go back to living however they good and well please.”

Take a hard look at the nation’s moral choices and try to tell me with a straight face that we’re still a Christian nation. Especially all you SoCons who think society is static.

MelonCollie on December 25, 2011 at 6:39 PM

Apples and Oranges.

Poll: Vast majority of Americans still self-identify as Christians

I don’t see anything in “self-identify” that means that these people have to live up to your definition of what it means to be Christian. Nor, so I see any reason for anyone to have to live up to your standard of what it means to be Christian.

So, people call themselves Christian. I’m sure drug dealers would call themselves Christian. I wouldn’t necessarily agree with them, but the question had nothing to do with that.

The fact that you feel that Christ is nothing more than a mythical Zombie tale just makes me laugh.

There are so many inaccuracies in what you say I’m not even going to take the time to set all of them straight. I’ll just say you’re wrong on EVERY count.

On top of that, you either have no idea what Christianity truly means or you have no idea what the Democratic party truly stands for. Either way, you’re wrong.

Try taking a good look into the socialist governments that have failed in the past that Obama is trying to fashion his administration after and ultimately what he would like to “transform” America into, not very sympathetic to religious freedoms or Christianity in ANY way.

Try taking a good look into who is waging a constant and unrelenting war on Christianity in any form in this country and what party those folks are affiliated with. ACLU ring any bells for you?

How about NOW and Planned Parenthood for a couple of shining beacons of light for the Democratic Party? How does abortion sit with you for a party platform? Yeah, the Democratic Party TRULY has cornered the market with regards to claiming the vast majority of Christians in this country. I know as a devout Christian myself, I really want to support the party of Abortion, wow, I’ve been wrong this whole time! What was I thinking, I’ve been voting for the wrong party all along!

Take the time to educate yourselves on the earth sciences and search out the truth.

Only an uneducated mind governed by supernaturalism can believe the tall tales in the Bible regarding mass resurrections, God punishing people with hemorrhoids, animals speaking, people apparating, the earth only being 6,000 years old, creation myths, humans living to be 900 years old, and sinners being turned into pillars of salt. We know enough about the world today that to believe in religion requires rejection of reality and fabrication of fantasy.

Bandit13 on December 25, 2011 at 4:53 PM

Science does not contradict the biblical account in Genesis.
Scientists with an agenda, contradict the biblical account in Genesis.

Then again, perhaps the politicization of Christmas — the suspicion of public displays of religiosity, the secularization of sacred expressions — comes from the majority’s attempt to accommodate the vocal minority.

Horse puckey, Ms Korbe. It comes of an ideologically-driven leftist minority trying to ERASE religiousity from the general populace.

It concerns me greatly that this isn’t readily apparent, and someone such as yourself, in the position you are in, would put forward such a pap-filled bit of nonsense about papists. The framing is utterly perverse / inverted.
The only accomodation being put forward by the religious and the right is doctrinal – ‘turn the other cheek’, etc. – but the only people willingly murdering their own beliefs for the sake of the rabid atheists of the Left are the misled folks in the corrupted anglican / unitarian / methodist congregants.

And as for the legions of the damned like the leftist anti-military scum inhabiting the Santa Monica government, well let’s just say those venal indcotrinated deconstructionists should be driven over that precipice they contaminated this season with that ludicrous ‘lottery’.